How and why Australian shooters are winning against the antis

Despite the appearance of increased regulation and tougher policing, the fact is that law-abiding firearms owners are winning the battle against the antis and are enjoying ever-growing support, according the Shooters Union president Graham Park.

“I’m going off numbers,” he says in a video posted this week. “I’m going off reality, not opinion.”

In this video, Shooters Union president Graham Park explains how shooters have come to gain the upper hand in Australia, despite the frequent attacks on us

He says record numbers of people are now licensed to shoot, our political influence is increasing, and our efforts at pushing back since the introduction of the 1996 guns laws are working.

In the video, he reports on the situation around Australia based on the perspectives he gets from the behind-the-scenes involvement Shooters Union has, which most gun owners are not privy to.

He says most people don’t realise we are in a good position, and that too many shooters have a negative and defeatist attitude.

“That’s exactly the attitude the anti-freedom, anti-gun people want us to develop.

“We are surrounded by attacks. The reason you see more attacks is precisely because you are winning.”

Graham explains that the bureaucratic system created to control gun ownership in 1996 assumed the shooting sports would die out, leaving only a handful of farmers and rusted-on old men to carry on, and it did not factor in any room for increasing numbers of firearms owners.

Yet after an initial reduction in numbers, gun ownership increased and now on several metrics exceeds pre-1996 figures.

In particular, shooting is one of extremely few activities, sports or industries administered by police, who by default are not administrators, and this strains police resources.

The inability of police to efficiently administer the various state registries under the much larger volumes of work now required has, Graham says, backfired in Western Australia, as evidenced by the fact that even with a majority government in control, the new guns laws there have been sent back for review.

Not only have the numbers of licensed shooters doubled or even tripled in most states, but those licence-holders are coming from a younger demographic, according to Graham.

“They like shooting, they like firearms, because guess what? Firearms are fantastic fun.”